wait for food manner

WAIT FOR FEEDINGGood food manners and getting your dog to wait nicely for their food is another form of impulse control.My aim when teaching a WAIT for food manners is get my dog to wait calmly until I prepare food and then say it is ok for them to eat it. I don’t mind if my dog sits/stands or whatever as long as they wait patiently, you can of course teach your dog to sit or be in a certain position.

I would recommend starting to teach food manners as soon as possible, even 8 week old puppies can do this one. I use a clicker in the first stages when teaching this wait, while I am preparing food but I fade the clicker pretty quickly, I also introduce a ‘release’ cue to tell my dogs they can go ahead and eat, if you already have a general release cue that you use then that will be great, if not, now is the time to introduce it.

If, like me, you have a little follower anywhere that food may be! Your dog will know you are going to prepare their food even before you get it out, you can start rewarding calm behaviour then

If you would like to have your dog in a certain position sit/down etc. then it does make it easier as your dog will very likely stay in that position for at least a few seconds – hopefully longer if you have proofed it! Personally I like to let me dog choose which position to be in, I really don’t have an issue if they sit/down/stand, doing it this way I prefer to have my dogs choose to be still rather than me putting them there

When you are preparing your dog’s food, you obviously need to turn your back on your dog, which then can often be a trigger for your dog to get fidgety​

Turn your back for a brief second, not long enough for your dog to have a chance to move, click and reward – keep repeating that increasing the time by a second once you feel they are successful at previous time – at this point you are not at the stage of preparing food yet, just turning your back

Once you can turn your back for a good 10 seconds or so, start adding the food prep, you can again reward increments as they stay still, increasing a second at a time

Once your dog is staying still while you prepare food the next step is to get their food onto the floor while they are calm and still, at this point I fade out the clicker

This is where my dog falls down on her impulse control!! She can often get over excited and start to jump about (she is a spaniel after all), so it’s up to me to ensure I follow through with this training EVERY time

With the food bowl in your hand, start to lower it to the floor – if your dog jumps up/gets excited, then move the bowl back up and wait for them to be calm

Continue moving the bowl closer to the floor until you can put the bowl on the floor – your aim is to put the bowl on the floor and have your dog wait a few seconds before you release them to go ahead and eat the food, the reinforcement being the food itself

if your dog jumps up/gets excited/ lunges towards the food bowl before you have released them, then lift the bowl back up and wait for them to be calm again

I do not add a cue until I have got to this stage – If I say the ‘wait’ cue to my dog before I have taught them what I would like them to do, how do they know what I am asking/ how do they know what it means!?

Once you are at the stage of putting the food bowl down and your dog waits for your release to eat the food, add your cue by saying ‘WAIT’ BEFORE you put the bowl down

You can use this same method for giving treats etc. - they move/lunge/grab the treat, the treat disappears until they are calm

Note – it may sound a bit long winded doing it this way but you will find most dogs get this pretty quickly as the reinforcement (their dinner) is such high value

There are also other ways to teach a wait, this is just one method, it’s important you use a method that both you and your dog happy with – as long as it is positive

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